Sometimes it’s easy to humanize our pets, anthromorphosize their actions, and project our own feelings into their psyche. There are those rare moments however, that our relationship with the rest of the world (esp those who do not use words), starts to speak volumes. When we realize that we do not just live in our own world limited to only what we feel and experience, it becomes such a powerful reason to be a better human being. The love we know and share is felt and understood intimately by those we choose to share it with.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of knowing Nickel’s personality, he normally doesn’t give a fuck. Until that day he and I both knew without a doubt – Kat is one of the strongest women we are truly blessed to have in our lives.

And for that to be said with two black beady eyes? That isn’t anthromorphosizing – he was simply telling the truth.

Yesterday, we visited the majestic Matanuska Glacier along the outskirts of Glenn Highway, shortly before we hit Anchorage. You could see this bad-boy from miles away, and we could hardly contain our excitement as we squealed like piglets about to be fed their first slice of awesome pie.

Although Kat and I generally like to keep our money inside our pockets, we opted to splurge a little by renting equipment and hiring our own guide to explore the ice fields. If we were going to do this once, we wanted to do it right. Triple the squealing when we found out that we could bring Nickel along!! Two were squeals of delight, and the third… Not so much.

We learned about the terminology behind glaciers, like the terminus and moraine, and how you shouldn’t go out after fresh snowfall in the spring unless you wanted to get sucked into hole and disappear from the face of the planet. We spent a few hours with our minds blown wide open, amazed also at the very eerie similarity of ice and our familiarity with the desert. It felt like we were in another planet – which is what it generally feels like when you open your eyes and try to fathom that there is more to this world than the people in it.

Oh great Matanuska, it was a great privilege and honor to have come before you.

I’ve been MIA the past few weeks on this blog. I officially realized it when my brother-in-laws (or brothers-in-law? brothers-in-laws? brolos?) both complained about having to see Cousin James as the last entry. I took that picture waaaay too long ago!

Kat and I have been trying to keep a clean house, and although there has been some progress, the to-do-list keeps on getting longer. And it always takes longer than planned to accomplish anything of significance.

The neverending to-do list. Maybe it’s a subliminal way of keeping ahead of the New Years Resolution of keeping all my crap together. Another reason why it feels so good to drop everything and camp away from the city, so we don’t have to think and deal about everyday crap. The only thing you have to think about is where you will have to crap that morning. Crap.

I’m on the USPS website about to splurge on some stamps. As some of you may know, we sporadically send out random postcards from our mini postcard printer. We try to keep it interesting, and try to combat spam (the bad kind) with snail mail power.

Hit the comments with your email on the form (it doesn’t show up when the comment is published), or shoot me an email at blog[at]lovine.com with your postal and I’ll put you on the list for random snail mail action. If you have received postcards before but changed address, let me know so I can update my records.

There are times in your life when you wait for something to happen, before you choose to act. You wait for the confidence to envelop your doubts, you wait for the mental calm to assuage your fears. The gut feel, the whisper in your head, the incessant beating of your heart. Some wait for a short time, others wait forever.

Break out of your molds, and leave the past behind. Find yourself.
October is here. And so is now.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I haven’t been writing as much lately. Let’s see if I can try to change that. It’s harder to keep an open mind and trying to hash out coherent thoughts that are worthy of posting, and I always feel like I need to put myself up to higher standards. That, and a lot of same old, put a damper on things. But on rare occasions, I actually feel like writing down what’s been happening.

It was a very interesting day today. I started by replacing a leaky distributor housing o-ring of the Shitzuki, which was causing it to tinkle oil whenever it sat asleep. As expected with automotive matters and the fact that my mechanical knowledge pretty much just consists of being able to use a socket wrench, the projected time it took to complete the task at hand was tripled, but thankfully successful. So far. The o-ring was hard and flattened, and shattered once I took it out of the bugger. I just need to clean the oil spill after surgery, then I can see if it cures the drip.

Later in the afternoon Nickel and I decided to don my “Paul and Kat” hat, and hiked out to the Renegade Craft Fair to say hello to our crafter friends (and help Jon sell t-shirts). Thanks to Carmageddon, we tore through the 101 in 2 seconds. Apart from the usual awesome that accompanies attending these craft fairs, Jon pointed out something that I haven’t thought much about, but quickly realized as a profound truth. We were exchanging stories about how our dogs came into our lives, and he mentioned that he believes you simply cannot ‘choose’ your dog, but they should somehow come into your life fortuitously on their own, however it happens. I could not agree more!

I type a lot when it’s 4am.

I spent the rest of the night trying to take pictures of Carmaggedon, and met two random people on the bridge. One was a guy who makes videos on Youtube and took pictures of themselves planking on the median of the 405, and the other was a hobby photographer who traded some excellent photo tips.

I’m getting tired.

As it has come to be expected from this corner of the intarwebz, pictures soon to follow. :)

As the final months of my 20’s draw to a close, the greatest revelations of my decade have decidedly turned towards the grace and tempered benevolence of nature. And although it is far easier to selfishly believe that the world revolves around yourself (which is true to an extent), I increasingly discover my own (ir)relevance outside the self perpetuating wheel of the modern world. F the system and everything else that tells you who you should be. The real world is not found in the jealousy of material goods and avarice. Listen instead to the winds of the desert, the rain of the forest, and believe in the whispers of your own heart.

Desert Dog expects you to know better than what you think you already know right now. Go out, and discover.